Guest editorial

Citation

Long, S.A. (2000), "Guest editorial", The Bottom Line, Vol. 13 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/bl.2000.17013caa.001

Guest editorial

Will we need libraries when everyone has a computer?

In my travels as ALA President, this is a question that I have been asked many times. I am sure I am not alone in fielding this question. I bet everybody connected to libraries in this country has had this issue posed to them as a serious concern and maybe sometimes as a rationale for not funding the library.

In thinking about an answer, I would suggest that we have assets and opportunities that will ensure the answer is "yes!"

Librarians can turn too much information into knowledge

As a profession, we have always been known as early adapters of new technology. In many communities, the public library photocopier was the first one available to the general public. Computers for the general public and access to the Internet were available in libraries long before they were available anywhere else. We are the ones who know how to perform an effective search and to evaluate the authenticity of Web sites. These skills stand us in good stead to be teachers, trainers, and guides to our constituency in using the Internet and other electronic resources.

The library is the place

As repositories and access points to the world's information, the library is the perfect place for both reflection and coming together. Whether it serves a school, an institution of higher learning, a corporate or special library population or the general public, the library is usually at the geographic heart of the community. The library is the perfect place to come together. It is the perfect place to think about and honor a wide variety of opinions. The library is our living room and our commons.

Libraries do good things for children

In my career as a public library director in two different states, I have been responsible for asking the voters for operating funds for the library. In both cases, we hired pollsters to help us with our campaign and, in both cases, we discovered that people would vote for the public library because it did good things for children. People care about the library, will vote for the library, and will even pay for the library due to their children and what they remember from their own childhood. Libraries bring children to books and to reading at an early age and work to keep them reading all their lives.

Libraries represent deep roots in the community

Every library, no matter the type, has people who care about the library and represent the community it serves. They might be public library trustees or a faculty or corporate advisory committee but, whatever they are called, they represent a grounding for the existence of the library in the community. These deep roots go back to our beginnings as a democratic society. Libraries, with free access to information, are the cornerstones of democracy. Having others believe this and re-enforce the veracity of the library's role in a democracy is a valuable asset.

Libraries are the answer to the digital divide

The US Commerce Department has identified the digital divide as the gap that is occurring between those who have access to computers and the Internet and those who do not. Libraries are the answer. Almost 80 per cent of America's public libraries offer access to the Internet. Access is also widely available in schools, institutions of higher education, and corporate and special libraries. As the digital divide becomes more of an issue, communities all over will be conducting an inventory, not only of access to the Internet but of Internet training availability. Libraries are a big part of the answer. This is an opportunity for libraries to underscore their traditional role as gateways to information.

How we answer the question, "Will we need libraries when everybody has a computer?", is critical to our future financial funding. No one allocates funds to institutions going out of business. Besides the philosophical answer to the question, we need facts and figures. For example, public libraries have long documented their success and relevance to the community with circulation statistics. That's not good enough anymore. More people than ever before are coming in, but national circulation statistics for the last several years have been pretty flat. Librarians need to find, develop and use statistics that demonstrate the usefulness of all of our services to the people we serve.

I learned an important lesson in my second job. I wrote a small grant proposal and got some money for a project I was interested in. All of a sudden, because I had money, I had status. Libraries of all types need to consider outside fundraising. Not only because the additional money provides you with the wherewithal to undertake a special project, but also because of the visibility that it will give the library. It's a "vote of confidence" by an outside source.

Five years from now, everyone will know the answer to the question, "Will we need libraries when everyone has a computer?" I am banking on the answer being "We need libraries more than ever!"

Sarah Ann LongPresident of the American Library Association and Director of the North Suburban Library System, Wheeling, IL